I found this excerpt in a children’s book Of Courage Undaunted by James Daughtery. One of the women I teach with collects old books and uses them in her classroom. I love to browse her shelves. As e-readers gain in popularity, books become curated items that show your values and your interests.

Sacagawea’s son Jean Baptiste Charbonneau, or “Pompy,” was three months old when the Corps of Discovery left Fort Mandan. He lived a remarkable life, straddling two worlds.

The Corps of Discovery by James Daugherty

Done in the Open by Frederic Remington

There was nothing you could say that was special about them.
They chawed tobacco and cussed and caterwauled that
they were double jointed, fire-eating, leather-necked, half-horse
half-alligator men who could lick their weight in wildcats.
They were picked almost at random out of the Ohio Valley
of Virginia, Kentucky, Tennessee, or New England stock,
merely a sample fistful of what American democracy turns out,
as you might pick up a handful of leaves and say, These are oak.

Any state in the Union can give you 10,000 such at any time or ten times ten thousand, if there is a call to stand together in time of danger, or hold the line on land, in sea or air, not without bragging or grousing and a sour kind of humor, sometimes terribly scared but never broken by fear, of courage undaunted.

Sweating and rank, coarse, muscular, lanky, level-eyed, generous minded, free speaking, slangy- you don’t have to go far in any city or town to find them; no farther than any street corner of factory bench, farmyard, filling station, public high school. As Lincoln said, “God must have loved them or he would not have made so many.”

I featured some of my favorite American stories. If you are interested in collecting books, Amazon has a primer for you. I like to visit college towns and browse the used book stores, building my collection that way. Do you have an unusual old book? Tell me about it. I’d love to know.

It suddenly struck me that that tiny pea, pretty and blue, was the Earth. I put up my thumb and shut one eye, and my thumb blotted out the planet Earth. I didn’t feel like a giant. I felt very, very small.

–Neil Armstrong

On August 25, 2012, Neil Armstrong joined the infinite. He was 82 years old.

There are 7 billion people on Earth today. Of the these, only 24 could tell you what it is like to visit the moon. Now there are 8. I watched the documentary on Saturday on my pc. Maybe you will watch it too.

LP Narrated by Charles Kuralt, audio clips of news events from 1968

When I was younger, I bought this LP at a garage sale. I listened to it scores of times, the way you listen to things over and over when you are young and have time to do things like that. It helped me fall in love with the thrilling story of the journey to the moon. I might not be able to get to the moon, but I can visit a moon rock on loan at the Arizona State University for free. Google the LROC for more information.

I saw this movie when it came out at the Harrisburg East Mall. I went with my dad. Later he gave me his copy of the book. I read it in one day.

On board the Apollo the astronauts read from the book of Genesis. No matter your belief, the poetry and message is beautiful.

“We are now approaching lunar sunrise and, for all the people back on Earth, the crew of Apollo 8 has a message that we would like to send to you.
In the beginning God created the heavens and the earth.
And the earth was without form, and void; and darkness was upon the face of the deep.
And the Spirit of God moved upon the face of the waters. And God said, Let there be light: and there was light.
And God saw the light, that it was good: and God divided the light from the darkness.

“And God called the light Day, and the darkness he called Night. And the evening and the morning were the first day.
And God said, Let there be a firmament in the midst of the waters, and let it divide the waters from the waters.
And God made the firmament, and divided the waters which were under the firmament from the waters which were above the firmament: and it was so.
And God called the firmament Heaven. And the evening and the morning were the second day.

“And God said, Let the waters under the heavens be gathered together unto one place, and let the dry land appear: and it was so.
And God called the dry land Earth; and the gathering together of the waters called He Seas: and God saw that it was good.

Neil Armstrong, 2007

And from the crew of Apollo 8, we close with good night, good luck, a Merry Christmas – and God bless all of you, all of you on the good Earth.”

The Strand advertises 18 miles of bookshelves. I would head directly to the rare books room, or the presidential memoirs, or the regency romances and park myself. I could spend a lifetime here. Where would you browse?

James Franco signing books at The Strand. I like how he decorated the book end papers. Except I would not like that if he came to our library and did that. I’m sure that is his own book, right Mr. Franco?

This man can go to the Strand, after you read his story, you can see that only the bravest bookworm can go to the Strand.

Excerpted from Humans of New York: “In November of 42, my unit was building airstrips in Scotland when we received an order to pack up our things. They put us on ships in the middle of the night. You couldn’t see anything, and they didn’t tell us where we were going. When the sun came up, we saw that we were part of a giant convoy. There were hundreds of ships, all across the horizon: cruisers, destroyers, transport ships. It looked just like a movie. Turns out we were headed to Algeria. When we hit the Strait of Gibraltar, all the ships had to come together, which made us vulnerable to air attacks. So suddenly the sky was filled with British fighters giving us cover. Tons of them. When we landed, we built runways so that the Allies could supply their North African operations. I was behind the lines because I was an engineer, but the Germans were hitting us pretty hard in North Africa. I remember all the boys heading toward the front on tanks. Lines and lines of them. They knew it was the real thing this time, so their faces looked pretty grim. “

photo from Humans in New York

Do you like people-watching? Do you like big cities? New York might be the place for you. I like to read the blog Humans of New York to catch a glimpse into the life in the Big Apple.

I added Pure to my to-read list on Goodreads. Do you use Goodreads to keep track of your books? I think you should.

These are my dachshunds, Billie Jean (under the sweater) and Michael.

Pure Summary:

We know you are here, our brothers and sisters . . .
Pressia barely remembers the Detonations or much about life during the Before. In her sleeping cabinet behind the rubble of an old barbershop where she lives with her grandfather, she thinks about what is lost-how the world went from amusement parks, movie theaters, birthday parties, fathers and mothers . . . to ash and dust, scars, permanent burns, and fused, damaged bodies. And now, at an age when everyone is required to turn themselves over to the militia to either be trained as a soldier or, if they are too damaged and weak, to be used as live targets, Pressia can no longer pretend to be small. Pressia is on the run.

Burn a Pure and Breathe the Ash . . .
There are those who escaped the apocalypse unmarked. Pures. They are tucked safely inside the Dome that protects their healthy, superior bodies. Yet Partridge, whose father is one of the most influential men in the Dome, feels isolated and lonely. Different. He thinks about loss-maybe just because his family is broken; his father is emotionally distant; his brother killed himself; and his mother never made it inside their shelter. Or maybe it’s his claustrophobia: his feeling that this Dome has become a swaddling of intensely rigid order. So when a slipped phrase suggests his mother might still be alive, Partridge risks his life to leave the Dome to find her.

When Pressia meets Partridge, their worlds shatter all over again.

MJ 4Ever

If you like Dystopian books like The Hunger Games or Matched, you would probably enjoy Pure. Have you read it? What do you think of it?

Roy “Rocky” Chandler and a tower of titles he authored. I want to read them all!

I parked in front of their wall of bookcases (the way I do) and asked about some of the titles. After a while, my friend went into a back room and returned with five red covered books by Roy Chandler.*

The Pennsylvania Frontier Series

He said they were a gift from his co-worker when he retired. I picked up the first one, Arrowmaker and started reading.

excerpted from the introduction

When I went online, the books are not easy to find–they are privately published and folks seem to hold on to them. They are either $40.00 plus for a hardcover or $4.99 for an e-book. I downloaded Arrowmaker (From Amazon) that night and fell in love. The story is written for adults but the reading level is more Young Adult.

The values and language are not inappropriate for children, but because of subplots of courtship and frontier violence I would start with an older child of 6th or 7th grade. In a way, this book reminds me of the Little House on the Prairie series. It embodies values like industry, honesty, perseverance and good humor. Life on the frontier was brutal, the people lived on the knife’s edge and they had to work hard, rely on ingenuity and reputation matter for survival. Another adventure series I like as much is the Ranger’s Apprentice series by John Flanagan (fantasy) or Arundel series by Kenneth Roberts (Revolutionary War series).

Arrowmaker is filled with exploring, building and fighting. The story is based on facts including actual incidents that occurred in the areas depicted. If a reader chose, he could go to the land described and walk the ground while recognizing the physical features written about.

Arrowmaker is replete with the danger and violence of the times, but the warring is believable and much of it really happened.

Readers develop a unique empathy with the frontiersman, Rob Shatto, and when finished each reader will have gained a new friend that he will cherish as if Rob’s great wilderness home had been just down the road. In this volume you will meet frontiersmen and Indians who reappear in succeeding books of this frontier series, but you must read Arrowmaker first. It is the soul-the heart-of all that comes after, and believe us, you will wait with impatience the coming of the next book and each thereafter. We know it is so because we (including the author) have experienced it. The adventure is heady, and we highly recommend it.”

I grew up in Dauphin County, next door to Perry County. The names and locations of the places in the book are familiar to me. I shared Arrowmaker with my FIL who was born in Canada and raised on a farm. He was equally absorbed. The publisher says that readers or all ages and reading abilities fall in love with the books. I love that.

A bio on Amazon had this to say about Roy Chandler, “Roy F. Chandler, MSgt. U.S. Army (retired) was an active duty soldier for twenty years. A veteran of WWII and Korea, he operated a sniper school, and during the 1950s he was a test NCO at the arctic Test Board in Alaska. Roy Chandler has been a nationally recognized big game hunter and writer for forty-five years. He has authored 57 published books.” Seriously? He’s awesome.

Arrowmaker painting by Craig Tennant

I love the romance of the frontier and the French and Indian War. My step father earned a merit badge camping out alone next to General Braddock’s grave when he was a boy. I loved his stories of Half-King and his daughter. I love historical fiction with a strong grounding in facts. Real people, real events woven into an unforgettable narrative. I’m grateful to my friend who sharing his library with me.

*for this post, I used a variety of French and Indian War inspired artwork to add interest to the text. The book Arrowmaker is set at the time of the Indian Wars in PA in the 17th century. The pictures are not accurate for the story but they are not far off either.

The drive to Oracle from Tucson was very pretty. We loved the mountains, the cloudy summer sky. On Biosphere Road beyond the cattle guard were cattle grazing freely. Moooooo.

The Biosphere is a science campus nestled in the foothills of the Santa Catalina mountains. The countryside is gorgeous.

I took this picture with my phone, so multiply this picture by 10000 and you have how pretty it was. This is a shot from the campus to the mountains.

Biosphere II is a science wonderland. It is a place for researchers to study the water cycle, biomes, climate change and imagine colonizing outer space. It is hard to explain which is why you should visit and tell me what you think the Biosphere is.

We visited at noon on a Saturday so our tour was crowded. Next time I will go during off peak times because part of the fun was running around outside.

You start at the visitor’s center, walk through a tiny neighborhood of colorfully painted houses with pretty landscaping.

I pointed out to Brady how concrete the language they used here was “our tour would be 1 hour and 15 minutes long, cover one mile and 200 steps”. We talked about how simple and beautiful the design was.

Everything has clean lines and simple shapes. The grounds are dotted with petrified wood and boulders striped with blue green ores.

This is not turquoise, but I did not write the name down. What kind of ore do you think this is? We saw at least 10 boulders like this on the way to the Biosphere entrance.

Our tour guide was Mr. Claudio. Our tour was crowded because we came at mid day on a Saturday.

The size of the tour and the uncertain acoustics in the different rooms meant we couldn’t understand the guided tour. Some of the ideas were a over the head of the boys. We got by just fine by looking around at the plants, the different rooms and talking about savannah, rain forests, deserts. So even without understanding anything he said, we still had fun.

What makes the biosphere fun is the scale and the materials they use to build. These look like toys we have, but look how they use them.

We liked the giant plants.

What kind of plant is this? It has beautiful glossy leaves.

We liked the sound of water and wind inside the great space.

Conducting experiments on breaking down waste.

This was a very sensory place. In a good way.

This passage way descended 200 feet and culminated in a half size triangle portal, no problem for the boys. Very fun.

The passage opened into the South Lung a giant echo chamber. Picture a giant white barrel. Giant. that is what we were inside. No way to convey the scale with my camera phone so I just captured moment of Mr. Claudio using a mike in an echo chamber. (he had it turned down)

Oh my I thought this was funny. He kept up his tour but within an echo chamber it was so echoey. Awesome!!

Last bit, the wind machines in the basement. They had another name but I have no idea what that was. They were fun! And windy!

There was a bank of giant wind machines which I would love to understand what that was all about. It was enough to be at the tail end of the tour and enjoy the great gusts of air. Awesome.

Draped over the hillside are solar panels. It is easy to talk about carbon footprint and using the Earth’s resources gently in a place like this. It makes sense.

Under a glass dome,
Mrs. Kenney

P.S. We used a groupon to buy a one year family membership to Biosphere. (It is no longer available but I link to it so you can see what the deal was). It was offered near the beginning of summer as a way to pump up attendance. I hope they offer it again next year. I follow groupons for Phoenix and Tucson and I notice that the deals repeat. Do you have a favorite way to save on family outings?

We visit Tucson every month. My husband’s family lives there and we love to see our family and friends.

In the desert shade is valuable. My MIL has a small yard. She turned it into a beautiful outdoor room by planting an orange tree, lemon tree, tree I don’t know, and palo verde. She planted ground cover and butterfly friendly plants. It is my favorite place to sit and read.

It was an overcast day so we took a trip downtown to Sentinel “A” Mountain to climb it with the boys. We drive by it all the time, we had the day free so off we went.

We put on sunblock, packed water and food.

Do you know what kind of bird made this nest? I would like to know!

It is a short hike from the parking lot. In ten minutes, we made it to the A.

We chose to hike overland but you can also walk along the road. I recommend a drive by to get the lay of the land first. This is a very easy hike.

photo by Bill Morrow (Bill8704 Flickr)

On the way down, we decided to walk on the road, instead of going back the way we came. That was a mistake. We missed the turn for the parking lot and had to send Papa to get the car. Thank you Papa!!

We saw 4 warthogs flying in formation over the city while we were at the Iron Horse Park. They train at the nearby Davis Monthan AFB. Several trains passed us and you could see them rattling and enjoy the long whistling. Truly the best park ever.

Sssssssssssssssincerely,
Mrs. Kenney

p.s. If you are looking for family friendly or budget friendly places to eat in Tucson, I suggest Feast and Little Anthony’s Diner. If you followed this plan, your day was free (assuming no hotel) and now you can have a nice family dinner out. The menu at feast is affordable for a family and the food is fresh, outrageously good. We love Little Anthony’s too. If you have lots of kids that is a fun place to go.